Shin-Yokohama Raumen Museum (Yokohama, Japan)

The Shin-Yokohama Raumen Museum is for those who can't get enough of Japan's classic noodle dish.

On the first floor there's an exhibition about the history of ramen that includes displays of traditional bowls alongside the more recent invention every college student is all too familiar with -- instant ramen.

The two basement floors are a replica of Shitamachi (Tokyo's old town) and house nine restaurants, each of which serves up different regional varieties of ramen.

Highlight: A replica of the first ramen dish ever eaten. The consumer was a 17th-century samurai named Mito Komon.

York's Chocolate Story (York, England)

This chocolate-themed museum takes a calorific look at how the chocolate industry shaped this beautiful northern English city.

"While other British cities were built on steel, coal or wool, York's fame and fortune has rested on chocolate for almost 300 years, thanks to the chocolate expertise of three entrepreneurial families: Rowntree, Terry and Craven," explains museum manager Nikki Jacobs.

"Though much has changed over the centuries, York remains the UK's home of chocolate."

Highlight: The Factory Zone, where you can watch York's master chocolatiers in action before that all-important taste test.

Museum of Olive Oil Production (Lesvos, Greece)

This museum focuses specifically on how Greece's olive oil industry was transformed by the introduction of machinery, a far more interesting subject than you might think.

The museum, housed inside a beautiful stone building, allows visitors to learn about everything from the mass cultivation of olive trees to the machinery used to crush olive pulp and separate the oil from water.

Highlight: The exhibition that explains the science behind the acidity test, which checks the quality of olive oil.

Tamara Hinson is a UK-based freelance journalist who has written for publications and websites including the Daily Mail, the Telegraph, the Independent, the Observer, the Express, BA High Life, Sainsbury's magazine and CNN.